Celtic Daily Light

Extracts from Ray Simpson's Book

Readings for Saturday 7th December 2019

Snow lying on a hedge

The crooked shall be made straight

What is crooked shall be made straight.

Luke 3: 5

We talk about crooks or perverts as bent people; but the truth is that all of us are bent in some way, and not one of us can move into a state of bliss, into our ultimate fulfilment in God, unless every crooked thing is straightened out. We can prepare the way for the Lord by putting straight what is crooked. Crooked things include tax evasion, gossip, shortcuts, dishonest use of money, abuse, wilful failure to communicate, manipulative techniques, false fronts.

What things then are good? Those which have remained whole and uncorrupted as they were created, which God, according to the apostle, "has prepared that we should walk in, the good works in which we are created in Christ Jesus". These are: goodness, integrity, devotion, fairness, truth, mercy, caring, peace, spiritual joy, with the fruit of the Spirit; all these with their fruits are good. The opposites of these are the evil things: malice, irreverence, discrimination, lying, greed, hatred, discord, bitterness, with all the many fruits they bear. For the fruits of both good and evil are innumerable.

True discernment is the inseparable companion of Christian humility and opens the way to perfection to the true soldier of Christ.

If we all weigh our actions in the just balance of true discernment we shall not be hi-jacked into crooked ways. If we walk by the divine light we "shall not go astray either to the right or to the left" but we shall always keep on the straight way, chanting with the conquering Psalmist "O my God light up my darkness, for through you I shall be delivered from temptation".

The Rule of Columbanus

  • Lord Spirit, show me the things that are crooked in my life
  • Lord Judge, spare me from things that could be crooked in my life
  • Lord Christ, straighten out the things that are crooked in my life
  • O my God, light up my darkness
  • and deliver me this day from temptation